Brussels, 21/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - The Education Council adopted, on Friday 21 November, a resolution on a European strategy in favour of multilingualism. The resolution calls on member states to: 1) promote multilingualism; 2) strengthen lifelong language learning; 3) promote multilingualism as an asset for economic competitiveness and the mobility of people; 4) promote linguistic and cultural diversity by supporting translation; and 5) promote languages in the European Union and throughout the world. The Council gives a very powerful signal to the Commission, Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban said, adding: “This gives concrete substance to member states' support for development and implementation of a multilingualism strategy to face many challenges”.
In parallel on Friday, the European Commission presented a further study of the Eurydice network on language teaching in European schools, which gives an overview of language learning at primary and secondary school level in general education in 31 countries. The study reveals growing attachment to language learning in general education, with pupils beginning to learn a foreign language at an increasingly young age. The results tend to indicate that participant countries are in line with the Council resolution, the Commission commented. (I.L./transl.jl)